Five Granite Staters tops at New England track and field

Staff ReportJune 15. 2014 8:40PMFive New Hampshire athletes earned top individual honors Saturday during the New England Interscholastic Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Bridgewater (Mass.) State University.

New Hampshire girls took the top two places in the 300-meter hurdles, as Lebanon’s Corinne Kennedy (44.04 seconds) edged Winnacunnet of Hampton’s Ann Sheehy (45 seconds-flat) by less than a second.

Maegan Doody, a sophomore from Oyster River High of Durham, won the 800-meter run in 2:10.80. Another Oyster River sophomore, Dominique Twombly, achieved two podium finishes, placing second in the 100-meter dash and third in the 200.

Another underclassmen, Nashua North junior Zakari Jenkins, won the boys’ 200-meter dash in 21.65 seconds.

In the boys’ 1,600 meters, Coe-Brown senior Jeremy Brassard outdueled Jack Salisbury of Providence, R.I.’s La Salle Academy, finishing first by just more than a half-second, in 4:12:44.

Among other notable performances by Granite Staters were some near-misses for top regional finish and one heartbreaking disqualification.

In the girls’ 1,600, Exeter’s Shannon Murdock missed a first-place finish by less than a second, running a 4:54.14. Danae Rivers of New Haven, Conn.’s Wilbur Cross High took first in 4:53.46. In the boys’ 800-meter run, Sean Munnelly of Litchfield’s Campbell High took second in 1:53.02, and in the girls’ discus, Morgan Ferland of New Ipswich’s Mascenic Regional was runner-up with a throw of 121 feet, 8 inches.

In the boys’ high jump, Lebanon’s John Cioffredi entered the meet as the top seed, with a qualifying leap of 6 feet, 8 inches, but settled for third place at 6-5.

Bedford twins Anika and Letti Hibbard both cleared 5 feet, 5 inches in the girls’ high jump, but Anika did so in fewer attempts, finishing in a tie for second place while Letti finished sixth. Ellen DiPietro of Marshfield, Mass., took first place at 5-7.

Nancy Taban, a senior from Merrimack Valley of Concord, had the best time in the preliminary round for the 100-meter hurdles but was disqualified due to a hurdle violation in the final.